Reality Wins Role In Sitcoms

April 19, 1985|By Jeff Pryor, Special to the Sun-Sentinel

The state of situation comedies on prime-time television is no laughing matter.

Today`s comedies, like those of the early to mid-1970s, are grappling with issues that leap full-blown from the front page of the newspaper onto the TV screen: Child abuse, suicide, alcoholism, cancer and even the threat of nuclear holocaust now seem to be incorporated into half-hour comedy shows on a regular basis.

Even light comedy programs with no history of dealing with issue-oriented or reality-based themes are joining the bandwagon. ABC`s Benson, for instance, recently aired an episode involving a nuclear scare.

The reason for it, says Glenn Padnick, president of Embassy Television, is ratings. ``If the Nielsens are accurate, then the audience is more than ready for it,`` he says.

``I think the public is so bored with predictable, familiar TV comedy stories that they sit up and pay attention when they see a show stepping into more interesting and treacherous waters.``

This kind of serious TV comedy has its roots in the breakthrough sitcoms of a decade ago, particularly Norman Lear`s creations such as All in the Family and Maude -- a show that looked for comedy amid the chaos of abortion and manic-depressive illness.

Today, Lear co-owns Embassy, a company that routinely produces issue- oriented episodes within its various shows, which include Facts of Life, Diff`rent Strokes, The Jeffersons, Silver Spoons and E/R.

Padnick notes that comedy shows should have the freedom to deal with any topic. If you accept the shows as reflections of reality, he says, then it`s also acceptable to deal with meaningful problems mixed in with a few laughs.

But there are dangers when comedy programming turns from being silly to serious. Howard Rosenberg, the TV critic for The Los Angeles Times, recently noted in a column that when a comedy attempts to deal with an issue, it`s a sign of desperation, indicating the show is not performing well and needs to be charged up.

Rosenberg also noted that when the topics become too heavy, the attempt to be serious backfires and the show begins to sound like a sermon.

Padnick agrees with that argument to some extent. ``I don`t want to say we have always been perfect in executing this kind of programing,`` he says. He points out that when a comedy tries to tackle an issue with two sides, it`s looking for trouble. He admits it could sometimes be misconstrued as propaganda.

For that reason, Embassy stays clear of the hard-hitting issues. Rather, the production house concentrates on producing shows that illustrate everyday problems.

``There is always a danger that these things can be written too preachy,`` Padnick says. ``But that`s a writing problem. I don`t think it`s a valid reason for us not to be doing this kind of show.``

While television has always been ambitious enough to tackle issue-oriented comedy shows in prime time, the amount of such programming is steadily increasing. And even the most unlikely people are popping up on network comedies.

Nancy Reagan, for instance, made an appearance on an episode of NBC`s Diff`rent Strokes focusing on drug abuse. Nationally known consumer commentator David Horowitz developed and appeared in a Silver Spoons episode dealing with children being cheated in the marketplace.

``I never thought in a million years I would be doing a basic sitcom,`` says Horowitz. ``But why not do a show that reaches a broad demographic and tries to capture these people that commercial TV is losing to cable? I think you can do it with programming that is relative.``

Lew Erlicht, president of ABC Entertainment, says his network is encouraging production houses to produce ``reality-based`` comedy shows. He explains the audience has become more mature and is demanding more socially relevant story lines.